Not a day goes by in which I am not asked: Carrie, what do you see as the coming trends for product development companies? (Well, maybe a day or two passes without the question — but with my travel schedule, I can be awfully hard track down.)
Given that, I thought I’d share with you the Top Five Trends for Product Development Companies that I’ve collected from gurus around the world.
- Portfolio Management: It’s not just for IT anymore
It used to be that IT was the only part of the organization applying the portfolio management discipline to its decision-making process. No more. I’m seeing a tremendous uptick in the number of R&D and Engineering groups applying portfolio management to the product portfolio. - Ideas, I need more ideas!
Here at Planview, we recently surveyed 900+ people in our 2nd annual product development benchmark survey. “Not being able to drive innovation fast enough” has moved up to a top 3 pain point — from #6 last year — neatly trading places with “cutting costs without cutting the future.”Driving innovation by getting more ideas into the funnel, and using smart, collaborative software to manage these ideas, is critical as we all go from cost-cutting recessionary moves to growth- and innovation-intensive tactics in this new economic environment. - People, I need more people!
Ouch. Year after year — as validated in our benchmark survey — “too many projects for our resources” is the dubious winner as top pain point that product organizations face.Companies must place greater emphasis on resource capacity planning as part of the investment decision making process. No longer can they afford to look at their product portfolio myopically based solely on financial impact. - Incremental will only get you incremental
The economy’s back: now, it’s about the breakthrough ideas — creating products that are new to the world and that will drive new revenue. Investing only in incremental innovation — enhancements and modifications — is safe, which is great when you’re hedging your bets. Your competition isn’t hedging its bets. Should you be?Smart product organizations strive for a balanced product portfolio, with resources (people and money) allocated both to breakthrough and incremental innovation. Just ask our good friends at Kalypso — they’ll point you in the right direction. - It’s a green world after all
Whether it’s a household cleaning product or an airline, a product’s brand is now encompassing the impact on the environment. Selecting the right offerings for a product portfolio now is as much about their sustainability as it is about price point, market timing, competitive impact, and more.But while we all want to buy the world a Coke and sing in perfect harmony, the reality is that companies must make intelligent portfolio selections based not only on their green impact but also on their bottom-line impact, and will be making careful tradeoffs to ensure a pipeline geared to deliver the optimal mix of both.
So there you have it, Product Pulse Peeps… the top five trends I’m seeing for successful product development companies. Tell me what you’re seeing!
